Greg Knott's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
Indiana Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| Yes | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| I will sponsor a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. I will join libertarian Ron Paul and progressive Barney Frank in sponsoring legislation to decrease wasteful overseas military spending by $1 Trillion over 10 years. I propose using the $1 Trillion in savings to provide a $16,000/year k-12 scholarship to every child at risk of dropping out of school. It will be modeled on the Harlem Children's Zone which graduates nearly 100% of their students. I will vote to end funding on undeclared wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. I will not vote to fund any corporate welfare like farm subsidies. | |||
| Jobs, simplicity and fairness in the tax code. My favored solution is the FairTax which replaces federal income and payroll taxes, including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes with a progressive national retail sales tax and a rebate to ensure that no AMERICAN(illegals ineligible for rebate) pays such federal taxes up to the poverty level. FairTax repeals the 16th Amendment, allows Americans to keep 100 percent of their paychecks, lowers compliance costs, and increases manufacturing jobs by completely eliminating taxes on exports which currently average 22%, and also saves Social Security and Medicare. | |||
| FairTax is the best solution for creating jobs and improving the economy. I also propose implementing a layoff prevention program similar to Germany's successful model. The incumbent voted against unemployment benefits extension July 22, 2010 when there was only 1 job opening for every 5 job applicants. I will vote to extend unemployment benefits to everyone willing to participate in job training and accept a job that will provide a livable wage. Unemployment benefits are one of the best forms of stimulative spending according to economist. I promise to aid the unemployed, not bailout mismanaged car companies like the incumbent. | |||
| b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | |||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| Unknown Position | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
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| Payroll taxes are an unsustainable funding source for Social Security and Medicare. I support saving these programs by changing the funding source from payroll taxes to a broad based progressive consumption tax like FairTax. I favor FairTax over other alternatives like Paul Ryan's Roadmap plan. However, I would not characterize Ryan's plan as a "privatization". It keeps the current system for those 55 or older while allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their contributions into a personal account that can not be raided by politicians. Accounts will be insured by government to return contributions plus inflation. | |||
| No | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| I am the only candidate in District 9 to sign the pledge at fightwashingtoncorruption.com. As a pledge signer I will sponsor a Constitutional Amendment to strip corporations of personhood rights and end their unlimited campaign spending. I will sponsor the Fair Elections Now Act to provide public financing to candidates supported by small donors so they can compete with corporate-backed and self-funded candidates. I will also sponsor the Lobbyist Reform Act prohibiting Congressmen from lobbying and vice-versa within a 5 year period. The incumbent, Baron Hill, violated this waiting period in 2005-6 as a lobbyist and 2007 as Congressman. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Using the savings from eliminating overseas military deployments we can fund k-12 scholarships to all children at risk of dropping out. This program can be modeled after the Promise Academy in Harlem Children's Zone which graduates 100% of their students, most of whom are accepted to college. We can do all of this for an investment of $16,000/student/year. States already spend $6000/student/year for schools that fail to graduate 25% of students. Our national security depends on our economic strength. We can't compete with the growing economies of China and India without fulling investing in education reform. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| I support stiff penalties and enforcement of those who commit violent criminal acts. I support the entire US Constitution, including the 2nd Amendment. Gun restrictions gives criminals the advantage since they do not obey laws. College campuses like Virginia Tech that ban guns have shown the devastating results of that policy. Protecting gun ownership rights is good public policy. Kennesaw, Georgia reduced crime by 89% by mandating gun ownership. Switzerland has a low crime rate and was not invaded by the Nazi's due to mandatory gun ownership and militia participation. I am a member of Gun Owners of America. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| No | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| I support legal immigration and welcome peaceful immigrants from abroad. Open borders are not an option as long as international terrorism is a threat. I support a physical barrier along the southern border. I support FairTax which will force illegal immigrants to pay taxes every time they make a retail purchase. Illegals are not eligible for the FairTax rebate. FairTax ends the tax incentive for illegal immigration. If we want to end all incentives for illegal immigration it will require strict penalties on employers who hire illegals. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| No | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| Yes | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| No | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | |||
| Free Trade Agreements are too long and complex. I support simple free trade which doesn't require thousands of pages and armies of lawyers to enforce. No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are undeclared and shouldn't be funded by Congress. Harvard and Columbia researchers have calculated the total costs of these wars at $61,000/household. We should immediately bring all troops home from Iraq, Afghanistan and the 128 other countries where they subsidize others' security. Foreign aid adds to our debt. | |||
| I'm running on the "NO BULL" platform which is an acronym for my 6 signature issues: No corporate welfare or bailouts Overhaul taxes for job growth, simplicity and fairness Bring the troops home now, subsidizing other nations' security is too costly Unfund foreign aid foolishness, stop going deeper in debt to fund corrupt foreign governments Lower US debt, invest in the future with k-12 scholarships for students at risk of dropping out Limit lobbying & corruption. I've signed the Fight Washington Corruption pledge and the other candidates have not. We need a common sense alternative to the lobbyists and lawyers. |
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